Overpaid brass players?!

The string section of a German orchestra has (said) it deserves more money than the brass section because it plays more notes. ... The strings of the Beethoven Orchestra claim to work harder ... and should get an extra £60 per rehearsal to reflect 'the extra notes' they have to read and play.

The musicians deny being pedantic (so no chance of them becoming bandsmen, then ). "We could have calculated the surcharge per semiquaver but we chose to take an easier course", one violinist said.

The horns (?!), flutes(!!!) and trombones are unimpressed....

"Of course strings are in action more than the brass", said a union spokesman, "but any violinist not happy with that should have taken up the trumpet at music school."

String players get it easy!!! Sounds more like, more money for the snobs in the front of the orchestra and less for those who don't have an unhealthy relationship with the conductor. After all, they can sit in a section of 20 to 30 players, a wrong note can be well and truly hidden by the others, since I could probably drown out a violin with a burp, and it would be less offensive than the majority of less trained "scratchers"! Sticking behind our colleagues on this one, admittedly they play less notes than violinists, but a) the production on a violin is 10x easier than on any brass instrument, there's always a chance that a note could come out wrong, b) mistakes are noticeable since a loud trumpet player could obliterate the rest of an orchestra, this extra stress should mean brass players should get more just for danger money! c) brass players are far funnier than string players who are jealous that brass players have a generally good sense of humour!

On the subject of orchestras, I came across a story that one of the major conductors didnt like having women in his orchestra because if they were good looking they would distract the brass players, and if they were ugly they would distract him!!

I don't care what the string players say, the fact that they want paying more is disgraceful, especially when:

#1 Brass players in general get paid pitifully less on a national scale (ie. less professional brass jobs available)

#2 They are demanding more money because they play more notes!

Why don't they just discount the fact that brass and woodwind players have to use their lungs (therefore increasing the chances that they'll be knackered!), that fewer players play their parts, meaning more pressure on their part to perform (and therefore requiring players of higher standards!) and that brass instruments are heavy ... so a pain to carry around! :lol:

Why don't the wind section go on strike? Refuse to play? See what effect that has on the orchestra. :evil:

anyway... what's this about harpists using 10 fingers? they got 2 the rest of us don't or something? an extra couple of fingers instead of their thumbs perhaps??

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I was watching Tarrant on TV the other night and he had some footage of a doctor in Eastern Europe who had 5 fingers on each hand, (as well as 2 thumbs), and 6 toes on each foot. Don't know whether he played the harp though.

The reason that brass/wind etc get paid more than the string players is because each player in the wind/brass section is considered a principle (ie 2nd trumpet is called co-principle). This means that every player plays thier own part, which is not doubled by any other player. In ths sense they are a soloist.

String players on the other hand are not principles as they play the same part as many other players. Payment is based on this fact and not the amount of notes played!